Ismail, S: Women Who Kill Their Spouses The Effects of the Background Factors on the Applicability of Legal Defenses in English Criminal Law

The topic of women who kill, particularly battered women who kill their spouses had been an area of conflicts and invited many critics especially in the applicability of the legal defenses. The problems arise in the aspect of accommodating the background factors of the killing into the defenses and the interpretation of the law itself. The traditional interpretation of the legal defenses is claimed by many to be unjust because it has been developed through male experience and has been seen from male perspective. Women therefore, have been silenced by the law and this claim is evident in the applicability of legal defenses, whereby women who kill, face on-going difficulties in presenting their cases. The book demonstrates the recurrent background factors in cases of women who kill, examines the effects of these factors on the applicability of legal defenses and proposes new strategies and alternatives developed for these women as an effort to represent their experience in the criminal justice system in England.